Uber Given A Week To Furnish Details For Radio Cab Licence

In this Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014 photo, a woman leaves the headquarters of Uber in San Francisco. Venture capitalists poured a whopping $48.3 billion into U.S. startup companies last year, investing at levels that haven't been seen since before the dot-com bubble burst in 2001, according to a new report issued Friday, Jan. 16, 2015. The two biggest deals in 2014 were separate rounds of investment in Uber Technologies, the high-flying and controversial ride-hailing service, now valued at $41 billion. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

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NEW DELHI -- Uber faces many adversaries around the world, from regulators to angry drivers and strong competitors. But its most formidable obstacle might be in New Delhi, as it attempts to get a radio cab licence for which it is simply not ready.

Today the Delhi government issued an ultimatum, under which San Francisco-based Uber will need to remove deficiencies in its application for operating cabs in the capital. If it fails, the application will be rejected.

Uber, which was banned two and half months ago after one of its drivers allegedly raped a woman, had applied for licence on January 22 to operate app-based taxi booking service through its subsidiary Resource Expert India Pvt Ltd.

The government however had issued a 'deficiency memo' on January 24 asking it to furnish all details before it as mentioned in recently introduced 'Modified Radio Taxi Scheme (2006),' an official said. Other app-based cab operators, such as Ola and TaxiForSure have also been served with the ultimatum because they face the same difficulties as Uber, and don't fulfil requirements for a licence.

HuffPost had reported earlier that cabs are operating anyway, despite them not getting a license and being banned. Uber had opted to not take commissions from drivers, replicating the model of an app that the government has a stake in, hoping that it could continue.

"We have issued them a deficiency memo on January 24 and a reminder was also sent in this regard on February 11. Since no reply was received on any of the two communications, we have given them a final opportunity to furnish the details within seven days," said a senior transport department official.

The new rules for apps such as Uber were finalised on January 1 following the outrage over rape of the woman on December 5 last allegedly inside the Uber cab.

Sources said that the three app-based taxi providers in their applications did not provide full details for procuring a licence according to laid down rules.

"In Uber's application, certificate/undertaking for parking of radio taxis was not provided. They also did not mention telephone number, e-mail address and address proof of their registered office in Delhi. "Besides, call centre management details were also not provided in the application," a top source said.